My Food Dryer Experiment (2)

The price range of a food dryer ranges from $50 to $2,000. What are the functional differences between them ? In fact, the structure of a food dryer is very simple. It is just a low-temperature oven, so its function The price depends on the following factors:

machine structure
Because the drying temperature of cheap food dryers is not high, the heat resistance and firmness of the structure of the machine itself are not high. Most of the outer shell, inner surface, and baking tray are made of plastic materials. If some materials are upgraded to metal or stainless steel, its price will be higher and higher. Usually the top commercial models are all made of 100% food grade stainless steel. Although the drying temperature will not exceed 80 degrees C , the acidity and enzymes in the fruit will inevitably decompose the plastic material after long-term baking and make it partly integrated into the dried fruit. Consumers who decide to dry their own dried fruit for health and hygiene reasons, of course, do not want to eat plastic raw materials or plasticizers in the process. So from the perspective of health, I will only choose to use food-grade stainless steel food dryers.

In addition, the sealing degree of the door handle of the machine is also one of the factors that determine the manufacturing cost. The better the sealing degree of the door, the less heat in the machine will be lost, the more stable the drying temperature, and relatively more energy-saving. In addition, after the drying process is over, the sealed door panel also prevents the fragrance from spreading and attracting ants, cockroaches, etc. of uninvited guests to crawl in and pollute our precious finished products.

Timing and temperature setting device <br>The higher the price of food dryer, the more accurate the timing and temperature setting device is. The temperature can be adjusted step by step, and the time can be set from one minute to 120 hours. Precise control makes it easier to control the degree of drying of different fruits, vegetables or meat at different temperatures and humidity. On the contrary, cheap dryers only have knob-type temperature and time settings. It is difficult to grasp the actual drying temperature and remaining time during use. The knob-type timer cannot be set for too long. It may be necessary to constantly reset the time during drying, which also affects the actual drying efficiency

circulation fan
The more well-designed dryer is equipped with a circulating fan inside, so that the drying heat is more evenly distributed to each block in the machine, so that the drying degree of the dried fruit on each shelf in the dryer is more consistent .

Because the author has high requirements on health conditions, in order to avoid indirect contamination of food with unnecessary plastic components during the drying process, the first choice is 100% stainless steel. After doing homework, I chose this EXC10EL top household model of Excalibur. The whole machine is made of stainless steel, has a circulating fan inside, and has LCD digital timing and temperature control functions. Although the door panel is not sealed, if the finished product can be taken out immediately after drying, whether it is sealed or not should not be a big problem.